Multihulls Arnie Duckworth, the man who founded ATL Composites here in “It’s opening up a giant crack in sailing. If you’re looking for the next generation of multihull to break the round the world record then you must consider the l ’Hydroptèreconcept.” conceptual drawings for a wide range of multihulls carrying the rig, however Morrelli says they are something you’re more likely to see on a 150-footer than 50 footers, but that may change with time. Morrelli also sees a major market emerging for a ‘SUV type thing of sailing’ - a comfortable cruising catamaran that will do 20 knots under power then, with the drive system retracted, sail as a fast cruising boat. He also acknowledged that one of the biggest challenges faced by designers today is how to slow down a multihull: “We want to devise better ways to get rid of power. It’s easy to make them go fast: it’s hard to slow them down. We want to come up with rigs that allow us to carry a lot of power which can be de-powered quickly and easily. Free-standing and fully rotating is a clue for us, but whether it’s a bi-plane [a mast in each hull] or a single rig in the middle is yet to be decided. The idea is to have a rig where you can dump the power quickly without reefing, and hopefully without spending 3,000 calories doing so. We have fooled around with a lot of ideas: bi-plane, bi-plane solid wing, bi-plane fat head, rotating – there are lots of things to consider, and I think that might be where the next generation, the fourth generation of cruising catamaran, will emerge. That’s the direction – being able to put more power on but control it more easily.” 44 | offshore Australia, is already heading down that track. He’s had young Thai naval architecture student, Natthavarat Titapan, design a fresh interpretation of a sport catamaran. There’s no denying it’s different: apart from its powerful, low profile bi-plane rig with square-top mainsails, it features a central pod that moves transversely across the main beams. Currently this pod houses the centreboard and rudder, but it will soon be fitted with foils not dissimilar to those used on hydrofoil Moths. “It’s dynamically stabilised by means of a surface-sensing hydrofoil design where the righting moment increases with an increase in boat speed,” Duckworth explained. “The centreboard and rudder, mounted in the central pod, will have T-foils at their lower extremities. The forward foil has a trim tab that is controlled by a lever arm that runs on the surface of the water. It lifts the boat to a pre-set height then maintains that height. The pod, which is attached to the underside of each beam via a Harken traveller system, can move up to 1.8 metres each side of centre.” The theory is that when moved to windward the foils will lift the windward hull and reduce drag in light winds, then when the pod is moved to leeward in stronger winds the foils will lift the entire boat above the water. The first phase of development is to make sure all the systems work, then the wings will be fitted once Duckworth is feeling confident – and hopefully the boat will fly. The low profile, square-topped biplane rig presents 60 square metres of working sail area, about 12 square metres more than a similar sized sports catamaran with a conventional rig. The carbon fibre masts are free standing and carry a triangulated set of diamond stays. Duckworth says this concept is expected to erase one of the big problems most conventional rigged cats experience when hard running: “The cantilevered biplane rig, which has no standing rigging to restrict sail trim, presents a significantly safer situation during a round-up because you are only 20 degrees, not 60 degrees, from a luff at any time.” He hopes to have the foils fitted and the boat ‘flying’ within weeks. If it works, there will be yet another incredibly exciting dimension added to the world of multihulls. O